The children’s television series Sesame Street is set in a fantasyland where your friends live around the block, you get along with all of your neighbors, and you can afford to live in a New York City brownstone. That last part might have been true when the show premiered in the 1970s, but it’s no longer the case for most people in the real world. In fact, having an address on Sesame Street today would set you back millions. While the exact neighborhood that inspired the show is disputed, the block’s real-life counterpoint has been pinpointed everywhere from East Harlem to Alphabet City to Astoria in Queens. Though the real estate values in these neighborhoods vary, none of them is cheap. In Alphabet City, a 1-bedroom condo goes for nearly $1 million. Brownstones make up most of the housing on Sesame Street, and on the Upper West Side a similar building is listed for $8.6 million. A multi-story home is more affordable in East Harlem, but it will still cost you north of $1 million. Astoria is the cheapest potential, with most homes valued at around $817,000. It doesn’t take Count von Count to figure out that Oscar the Grouch’s place is the most affordable.
